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Old Town councilors weigh using town electronic signs to advertise meetings
Summary
Councilors asked whether the town's two large programmable signs could carry meeting and budget notices; staff said the signs are city-owned, can be programmed remotely, but have character limits and traffic-safety restrictions that constrain message length and change frequency.
At the Jan. 6 meeting, a councilor urged the town to use its two large portable electronic signs to inform residents about upcoming council and budget meetings.
Councilors and staff confirmed the electronic signs are city property and can be programmed remotely by two staff members who manage the sign schedule among other duties. Staff cautioned that each programmable message has limited characters (often described as eight character slots per page in the discussion), requires abbreviations and must comply with traffic-safety rules governing how often messages can change. Staff said multiple pages can be used to show more information and that meeting notices can be added to the rotation.
Councilors said using the signs for meeting reminders would help residents who do not use social media or miss other announcements. Staff noted that programming the signs is feasible but constrained by personnel capacity and the technical limits of the devices; they offered to add meeting notices where they fit given space and timing constraints.
No formal policy change or ordinance was proposed during the meeting; the discussion concluded with council direction to pursue adding meeting information to the sign rotation where practicable.
